Rise to
prominence

Born in Sanshui, Guangdong, but of Zhejiang origin, Wang went to Japan as an international student sponsored
by the Qing
government in 1903 and joined the Tongmenghui in 1905. As a young man, Wang
came to blame the Qing dynasty for holding China back and making it
too weak to fight off exploitation by Western Imperialist powers. While in Japan, Wang
became a close confidant of Sun Yat-Sen, and would later go on to
become one of the most important members of the early
Kuomintang.[1]

Early
career

In the years leading up to the 1911 Revolution,
Wang was active in opposing the Qing. Wang gained prominence during
this period as an excellent public speaker and a staunch advocate
of Chinese nationalism. He was jailed
for plotting an assassination of the regent, the 2nd Prince Chun, and readily
admitted his guilt at trial. He remained in jail from 1910 until
the Wuchang
Uprising the next year, and became something of a national hero
upon his release.[2]

During and after the 1911 Revolution, Wang’s political life was
defined by his opposition to Western Imperialism.

In the early 1920s, Wang held several posts in Sun Yat-sen's
Revolutionary Government in Guangzhou, but following Sun's death in 1925
he faced a powerful challenge for leadership of the KMT. Following
the Zhongshan Warship Incident,
he lost control of the party and army to Chiang Kai-shek.

Wang Jingwei in his twenties.

Rivalry with Chiang
Kai-shek

During the Northern Expedition, Wang was the leading
figure in the left-leaning faction of the KMT that called for
continued cooperation with the Communist Party of China. It
should be noted however, that Wang was personally opposed to
Communism and regarded the KMT’s Comintern advisors with
suspicion.[3] He did
not believe that Communists could be true patriots or true Chinese
nationalists.[4] Wang's
faction, which had set up a new KMT capital at Wuhan in early 1927, was opposed by Chiang
Kai-shek, who was in the midst of a bloody purge of Communists in
Shanghai and was calling
for a push north. The separation between these two sides was known
as the Ninghan Separation (simplified Chinese:
宁汉分裂; traditional Chinese:
寧漢分裂; pinyin: Nínghàn Fenlìe).
Wang's faction was weak militarily however, and was ousted by a
local warlord the same year. Lacking the military or financial
resources to resist the increasingly powerful Chiang, his faction
was forced to rejoin Chiang Kai-shek at Nanjing in September
1927.

In 1930, Wang tried another abortive coup against
Chiang, this time with the aid of Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan in the Central
Plains War. In 1931, Wang joined another anti-Chiang government
in Guangzhou. Wang was
appointed premier just as the Battle of Shanghai (1932) began. He had
frequent disputes with Chiang and would resign in protest several
times only to have his resignation rescinded. As a result of these
power struggles within the KMT, Wang was forced to spend much of
his time in exile. He traveled to Germany, and maintained some contact with Adolf Hitler. The
effectiveness of the KMT was constantly hindered by leadership and
personal struggles, such as that between Wang and Chiang. In
December 1935, Wang permanently left the premiership after being
seriously wounded during an assassination attempt a month
earlier.

Wang reconciled with Chiang's Nanjing government in the early 1930s and held
prominent posts for most of the decade, and accompanied the
government on its retreat to Chongqing during the Second Sino-Japanese War
(1937-1945). During this time, he organized some right-wing groups
under European fascist lines inside the KMT. Wang was
originally part of the pro-war group, but after initial Chinese
defeats Wang became known for his pessimistic view on China's
chances in a war against Japan. He often voiced defeatist opinions
in KMT staff meetings, and continued to express his view that
Western Imperialism was the greater danger to China, much to the
chagrin of his associates. Wang believed that China needed to reach
a negotiated settlement with Japan so that Asia could resist
Western Powers.

Alliance with the Axis
powers

In late 1938, Wang left Chongqing for Hanoi, French Indochina,
where he stayed for three months. During this time, he was wounded
in an assassination attempt by KMT agents. Wang then flew to
Shanghai, where he entered negotiations with Japanese authorities.
The Japanese invasion had given him the opportunity he had long
sought to establish a new government outside of Chiang Kai-shek’s
control.

On March 30, 1940, he became the head of state of what came to
be known as the Wang Jingwei regime based in
Nanjing, serving as the President of the Executive Yuan and
Chairman of the National Government (行政院長兼國民政府主席). The Government
of National Salvation of the collaborationist "Republic of
China", which Wang headed, was established on the Three
Principles of Pan-Asianism, anti-Communism, and
Opposition to Chiang Kai-shek. Wang continued to maintain his
contacts with German Nazis and
Italian fascists he had
established while in exile. In March 1944, Wang left for Japan to undergo medical
treatment[5]. He
died in Nagoya on November 10,
1944, less than a year before Japan's surrender to the Allies, thus
avoiding a trial for treason. Many of his senior followers who
lived to see the end of the war were executed. Wang was buried in
Nanjing near the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, in an
elaborately-constructed tomb. Soon after Japan's defeat, the
Kuomintang government under Chiang Kai-shek moved its capital back
to Nanjing, destroyed Wang's tomb, and burned the body. Today the
site is commemorated with a small pavilion that notes Wang as a
traitor.

Life under the Wang Jingwei
Regime

Since Wang’s government only held authority over territories
under Japanese military occupation, there was a limited amount that
officials loyal to Wang could do to ease the suffering of Chinese
under Japanese occupation. Wang himself became a focal point of
anti-Japanese resistance, and was demonized and branded as an
“arch-traitor” in both KMT and Communist propaganda. Wang and
his government were deeply unpopular with the Chinese populace, who
regarded them as traitors to both the Chinese state and Han Chinese
identity.[6]
Furthermore, Wang’s rule was constantly undermined by resistance
and sabotage.

Post-War assessment and
legacy

For his role in the Pacific War, Wang has been considered a
traitor by most post-World War II Chinese historians in both Taiwan and
Mainland China. The
Mainland’s Communist government despised Wang not only for his
collaboration but also for his anti-Communism, while the KMT
downplayed his anti-Communism and emphasized his collaboration and
betrayal of Chiang Kai-Shek. The Communists also used his KMT ties
to demonstrate what they saw as the duplicitous, treasonous nature
of the Kuomintang. Both sides downplayed his association with Sun
Yat-Sen because of his eventual collaboration.[7]

However, some took a different view and regard his collaboration
with the Japanese as a good faith attempt to salvage China from
foreign imperialism. That reasoning was rejected by both the
Nationalists and the Communists. The Nationalist government tried
other major collaborators for treason after the war. The Communist
government further retaliated, executing many lower-level officials
from Wang's government.